Train Students to Be Participants, Not Spectators

Students are major consumers of virtually everything—and that attitude extends to their faith. College ministers are shocked that new students, rather than coming to college equipped to lead and serve, lack leadership and initiative. They see these challenges developing in high school and hope youth pastors will join with them to turn the tide.

“One thing that I wish youth pastors understood about students and college is that youth pastors must help their students develop a participant ethic rather than a spectator ethic. Youth need to be conditioned and challenged to ‘get in the game’ of ministry, rather than be audience members who show up each week desiring to be entertained by the pastor. If they have been born of God, they are empowered by the Holy Spirit for a purpose: to go and make disciples. Any preparation that does not integrate this mission into their fabric is falling short of the mark, and making my job much more difficult, as I then have to overcome the ‘holy huddle’ culture of those Christians who gather together merely for social and entertainment purposes.”

 —Matt Thiessen, Campus Crusade for Christ, the University of Missouri

 “I wish that more youth ministry was aimed at connecting students to the broader life of the church than simply having thrilling activities targeted at their generational desires. If students had greater connections to an intergenerational church ministry, their transition into college would be more widely guided and followed by others. This would help students to view their spiritual lives as less individualistic and more community-oriented. They would see that their spirituality is not about them alone, but about finding their place within the body of Christ.

 —Matthew Erickson, college pastor at Elmbrook Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

 “One of the central tenets we uphold is empowering students to make the ministry their own—to come up with creative ideas, make a plan of action, and then to carry it out. Recently, however, it seems that students are paralyzed at the thought of taking part in the ministry themselves, as opposed to having the program planned for them and they just show up. If youth pastors would start earlier empowering students, in an effort to help them make decisions and see a plan come to fruition, for us in campus ministry there would most likely be an increase in students taking ownership of ministry and living into the fact that Christ has set them free to do so much for this world, including for their own peers on campus.”

 —Ryan Church, associate director for college ministry with The INN, the college ministry of University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, and Janie Stuart, coordinator for the Ascent Network, INN’s church-based campus ministries